Taking a lead role in enriching the minds of the people’s representatives and influential persons of the villages and to provide exposure and training for the members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) on the ‘Role of PRI members in sustainable industrialisation’, Tata Steel has been organising regular training programmes at Gandhi Labour Foundation (GLF), Puri. Established on 16th June 1999, GLF with its well-organised record of service in educating the rural people of the country to improve their skills, impart knowledge of their rights and duties and also to make them better citizens in every way.

 

With more than 86% of people in the Parivar Community coming from agricultural and farming backgrounds, Tata Steel ensures that an elaborate process of skills assessment for nominated members is carried out with the help of the Company’s own training experts as well as other institutions. Subsequently, technical training is provided on the basis of skill-sets, trainability parameters and academic backgrounds in order to make optimum use of employment opportunities created by industrialisation.

A special skills upgradation training programme titled ‘Prerana’ has been designed to provide gainful employment to the nominated members of the project affected families. The programme also focuses on personality development, consultation on behaviour and attitude, safety training etc. Training Modules are certified by NTTF. Under this programme -

• 492 people have already been trained
• 189 have been employed with construction partners
• 34 graduates are trained on SAP
• 37 are pursuing Advanced Programmes (CTTC)
• 29 people have received Fire Fighting Training

The Seyan Marshal Technical Training Centre has been established at Kalinganagar with technical support from the Nettur Technical Training Foundation, Bangalore – a leading institution in the Country in the field. The training facility at the Company’s mining operations at Sukinda offers advanced training programmes. Nominated trainees will be absorbed into Tata Steel’s workforce once the plant construction work commences. In the interim, all contractors deployed to conduct work in the preparatory stage have been encouraged to employ trained Parivar members and some of them have also been successfully placed in industries and plants at other locations.This newly created workforce earns in the range of Rs.4500 to Rs. 6000 per month and this income is expected to increase with skill enhancement.

 

It is important to provide an alternative and sustainable livelihood to people who have been farmers for generations. Tata Steel carries out regular Income Generation Programmes for members of relocated families to help them get an exposure to all available opportunities. Initiatives in this direction include:

• Formation of self-help groups that are initiated into thrift and credit with necessary bank associations made.
• Pilot projects on non-farm based income-generating activities. These included setting up an ethnic handicrafts unit, a stitching unit for women and a food-processing unit. These have already bagged their first orders from Tata Steel.
• Support processes that help families and self-help groups understand the dynamics of managing a business to achieve a positive result.

 

Self-help Groups that have led the way The Dibyajyoti self-help group has highly motivated members with entrepreneurial skills and initiative and stand as a role model for other women in the locality. Their pickle brand is extremely popular, thereby making the unit a profitable indigenous enterprise. The ethnic handicrafts unit at Gobarghati Transit Camp has been an ideal income opportunity for senior women. Even at a very nascent stage, it has bagged large orders from Tata Steel.

Artisans in the making TSRDS has been playing a major role in promoting income generation programmes among the tribal populace in its areas of operation. At the Gobarghati Rehabilitation Colony area of Kalinganagar, stone carving and painting training programmes started by TSRDS has received incredible response. Ketaki Behera joined the stone-carving workshop after relocation and is even earning a monthly stipend today. The trainer Silpi Ashok Moharana feels that there will be expert carvers in just a year’s time. Lalita Malsandi is another tribal woman who joined the ‘Pata-Chitra’ training programme. She is thoroughly enjoying her calling and hopes to make it her primary source of income in the near future. Lalita lauds the initiative of the Company in helping to promote the traditional tribal Soura art form ‘Annital’. The income from SHGs averages Rs. 1500 per month and is increasing with the products gaining wider markets.

While Tata Steel has taken all the necessary measures to ensure alternative livelihood for relocated farmers, it has also kept in mind the requirement of those who are more keen to continue farm-based activities. Initiatives taken in this direction include:

• A project titled ‘Mission Sagen’ (Sagen being a Ho word meaning ‘birth of new life’) has been designed with 22 members of Tata Steel Parivar with the objective of facilitating farm-based activities. 16 acres of agricultural land has been leased out solely for this purpose.
• Every family has been assisted with technical expertise for utilising the land adjoining the plots allotted to them for growing seasonal vegetables.
• As part of infrastructure development, avenue and open area plantations have been planned for which The Sagen and Sarjam Sakam Mahila Samitee have been given the task of raising 10,000 saplings of the required species.
• Families that own cattle have been encouraged to build vermicompost units in their premises for commercial as well as household purposes. 20 such units have been created so far, producing 2.5 to 3 quintals vermicompost every three months.

Tata Steel has always adopted effective measures in improving its processes and adopted every necessary step to ensure that negative consequences in its environmental performance are minimised. To this end, Tata Steel has adopted various initiatives that have also helped in providing employment opportunities to members of Tata Steel Parivar. These include:

• Initiation of a nursery to cater to the green belt requirement of the proposed plant. It engages elderly women and widows and raises saplings of ornamental plants to be planted in the settlement colonies.
• Setting up a floriculture demonstration unit, spread over two acres in the Gobarghati Rehabilitation Colony. This includes a plant bank for future usage in conservation programmes.
• Plantation of saplings of fruit bearing trees has been undertaken at Trijanga and Sansailo resettlement colonies.
• Supply of seeds and saplings to relocated families for developing kitchen gardens on their land.

 

Tata Steel encourages the Parivar colony members, especially women and men beyond the employable age to utilise available self-employment opportunities. A study revealed that farm-based activities were most likely to yield definite financial benefits for individuals. Poultry farming being one of the most viable options, an interface was formed with members of the poultry co-operative at Jajpur to provide the required skills upgradation training.

Keen on inspiring the spirit of entrepreneurship among individuals possessing leadership traits, Tata Steel takes definite steps to engage them in supply chain activities of the Company. Many have re-invented themselves as service providers as a result of these efforts. Civil, structural and electrical jobs in the infrastructure development projects as well as in construction of Parivar colonies have been allotted to individual entrepreneurs who have the ability to use the potential of local workforce.